updates – Kubuntu

Fixes for recent KDE desktop vulnerability

rikmills — Fri, 09 Aug 2019 08:18:10 +0000

As you may have been made aware on some news articles, blogs, and social media posts, a vulnerability to the KDE Plasma desktop was recently disclosed publicly. This occurred without KDE developers/security team or distributions being informed of the discovered vulnerability, or being given any advance notice of the disclosure.

KDE have responded quickly and responsibly and have now issued an advisory with a ‘fix’ [1].

Kubuntu is now working on applying this fix to our packages.

Packages in the Ubuntu main archive are having updates prepared [2], which will require a period of review before being released.

Consequently if users wish to get fixed packages sooner, packages with the patches applied have been made available in out PPAs.

Users of Xenial (out of support, but we have provided a patched package anyway), Bionic and Disco can get the updates as follows:

If you have our backports PPA [3] enabled:

The fixed packages are now in that PPA, so all is required is to update your system by your normal preferred method.

If you do NOT have our backports PPA enabled:

The fixed packages are provided in our UPDATES PPA [4].

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/ppa
sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

As a precaution to ensure that the update is picked up by all KDE processes, after updating their system users should at the very least log out and in again to restart their entire desktop session.

Regards

Kubuntu Team

[1] – https://kde.org/info/security/advisory-20190807-1.txt
[2] – https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/kconfig/+bug/1839432
[3] – https://launchpad.net/~kubuntu-ppa/+archive/ubuntu/backports
[4] – https://launchpad.net/~kubuntu-ppa/+archive/ubuntu/ppa

Plasma 5.14.2 available in Cosmic backports PPA

rikmills — Wed, 24 Oct 2018 12:19:11 +0000

After the 5.14.1 release of Plasma 5.14 was made available for Cosmic 18.10 via our backports PPA last week, we are pleased to say the the PPA has now been updated to the 2nd bugfix release 5.14.2.

The full changelog for 5.14.2 can be found here.

Already released in the PPA is an update to the latest KDE Frameworks 5.51.

To upgrade:

Add the following repository to your software sources list:

ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports

or if it is already added, the updates should become available via your preferred update method.

The PPA can be added manually in the Konsole terminal with the command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports

and packages then updated with

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

IMPORTANT

Please note that more bugfix releases are scheduled by KDE for Plasma 5.14, so while we feel these backports will be beneficial to enthusiastic adopters, users wanting to use a Plasma release with more stabilisation/bugfixes ‘baked in’ may find it advisable to stay with Plasma 5.13.5 as included in the original 18.10 Cosmic release.

Should any issues occur, please provide feedback on our mailing list [1], IRC [2], and/or file a bug against our PPA packages [3].

1. Kubuntu-devel mailing list: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/kubuntu-devel
2. Kubuntu IRC channels: #kubuntu & #kubuntu-devel on irc.freenode.net
3. Kubuntu ppa bugs: https://bugs.launchpad.net/kubuntu-ppa

Plasma 5.12.3 bugfix updates available for 17.10 backports PPA

rikmills — Wed, 07 Mar 2018 08:54:35 +0000

Users of Kubuntu 17.10 Artful Aardvark can now upgrade via our backports PPA to the 3rd bugfix release (5.12.3) of the Plasma 5.12 LTS release series from KDE.

(Testers of 18.04 Bionic Beaver will need to be patient as the Ubuntu archive is currently in Beta 1 candidate freeze for our packages, but we hope to update the packages there once the Beta 1 is released)

The full changelog of fixes for 5.12.3 can be found here.

This includes an impressive list of fixes for Plasma Discover software centre, thanks in part to the excellent recent drive to improve and polish this important part of the plasma desktop by our Product Manager and KDE Developer Nate Graham.

Users of 17.10:

To update add the following repository to your software sources list:

ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports

or if it is already added, the updates should become available via your preferred update method.

The PPA can be added manually in the Konsole terminal with the command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports

and packages then updated with

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

PPA upgrade notes:

~ The Kubuntu backports PPA includes various other backported applications, and KDE Frameworks 5.43, so please be aware that enabling the backports PPA for the 1st time and doing a full upgrade will result in a substantial amount of upgraded packages in addition to Plasma 5.12.

~ The PPA will also continue to receive bugfix updates to Plasma 5.12 when they become available, and further updated KDE applications.

~ While we believe that these packages represent a beneficial and stable update, please bear in mind that they have not been tested as comprehensively as those in the main Ubuntu archive, and are supported only on a limited and informal basis. Should any issues occur, please provide feedback on our mailing list [1], IRC [2], and/or file a bug against our PPA packages [3].

Plasma 5.12.2 bugfix updates for 17.10 backports and 18.04 development release

rikmills — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 08:59:43 +0000

Users of Kubuntu 17.10 Artful Aardvark can now upgrade via our backports PPA to the 2nd bugfix release (5.12.2) of the Plasma 5.12 LTS release series from KDE.

Likewise, testers of our development release 18.04 Bionic Beaver will receive the update imminently.

The full changelog of fixes for 5.12.2 can be found here.

Users of 17.10:

To update add the following repository to your software sources list:

ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports

or if it is already added, the updates should become available via your preferred update method.

The PPA can be added manually in the Konsole terminal with the command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports

and packages then updated with

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

18.04 testers:

Will receive this via normal updates in the ubuntu main archive

PPA upgrade notes:

~ The PPA will also continue to receive bugfix updates to Plasma 5.12 when they become available, and further updated KDE applications.

Latest round of backports PPA updates include Plasma 5.10.2 for Zesty 17.04

rikmills — Sat, 17 Jun 2017 21:20:01 +0000

Kubuntu 17.04 – Zesty Zapus

The latest 5.10.2 bugfix update for the Plasma 5.10 desktop is now available in our backports PPA for Zesty Zapus 17.04.

Included with the update is KDE Frameworks 5.35

Kdevelop has also been updated to the latest version 5.1.1

Our backports for Xenial Xerus 16.04 also receive updated Plasma and Frameworks, plus some requested KDE applications.

Kubuntu 16.04 – Xenial Xerus

Plasma Desktop 5.8.7 LTS bugfix update
KDE Frameworks 5.35
Digikam 5.5.0
Kdevelop 5.1.1
Krita 3.1.4
Konversation 1.7.2
Krusader 2.6

To update, use the Software Repository Guide to add the following repository to your software sources list:

ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports

or if it is already added, the updates should become available via your preferred update method.

The PPA can be added manually in the Konsole terminal with the command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports

and packages then updated with

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

Upgrade notes:

~ The Kubuntu backports PPA already contains significant version upgrades of Plasma, applications, Frameworks (and Qt for 16.04), so please be aware that enabling the backports PPA for the 1st time and doing a full upgrade will result in a substantial amount of upgraded packages in addition to the versions in this announcement. The PPA will also continue to receive bugfix and other stable updates when they become available.

~ While we believe that these packages represent a beneficial and stable update, please bear in mind that they have not been tested as comprehensively as those in the main ubuntu archive, and are supported only on a limited and informal basis. Should any issues occur, please provide feedback on our mailing list [1], IRC [2], file a bug against our PPA packages [3], or optionally contact us via social media.